Turmoil

I've been offered a new job. A bit more money, and I'll still be able to telecommute. It's not a huge raise, but between the salary and the health benefits, I'll be pulling in enough now that I won't have to raid my savings account every month like I've been doing for the last two years (!). But I feel pretty guilty about leaving my current employer in the lurch. My current job is with a tiny, tiny company and I'm the only programmer there, so they'll be pretty screwed until they get someone else in.

And...GG came out to see me on Wednesday. It was just odd. We had a bottle of wine and a pizza, and chatted for a few hours, and then started making out. Unfortunately, it was not great. I mean, the making out was OK, but as for what came after...I think we were both just really nervous and it didn't go well. He was worried about me feeling "used" (since he doesn't know what his future plans are) and I told him that I wasn't expecting any kind of a relationship to come out of this (but dammit, I just REALLY needed to get laid, yanno?). Anyway, we did have sex, sort of. There were a lot of attempts, but he was having problems...um..."standing at attention," if you know what I mean. So it was awkward. I think he tried to make up for it by being very enthusiastic in other areas but it just came off as rough. He spent the night, and of course I couldn't sleep. I just have a big problem with sleeping in the same bed with someone I am not very, very comfortable with. So I only got a few hours' sleep, kind of dozing. I was exhausted yesterday, and then I had all these phone interviews with the new company. So...yeah. Not a great experience. I wish I could just curl up in bed and hibernate for a week or two.

Christmas Eve

Ooooh, I'm so excited. On Christmas Eve I'm going to make a big dinner for the three of us (Babydaddy, Rugrat and I):

• French onion soup (starter)
• Roast chicken
• Sweet potato casserole
• Brussels sprouts with bacon
• Bananas Foster (for dessert, obviously) with vanilla ice cream

Of course, Rugrat will probably only eat the chicken and the ice cream, but that just leaves more yummy grub for Babydaddy and I! Mmmm...bananas foster. My favorite dessert.

It's the mooooost wonderful tiiiiime of the year

And why is it so wonderful, you ask? Because:

• Christmas trees & the "halls" are all decked with holiday cheer
  
• My Christmas shopping has been done for more than a week
• All presents are wrapped and ready to go
• All my cards have been sent out (about 50 - including color copies of the annual update & photos), with the exception of the one card that I need an air-mail stamp for, since it's going to Belgium
• All my holiday baking is done

This year I went all-out with the baking. I made a fruitcake (another one; I'm not counting the underbaked one I did a few weeks ago), two lemon pound cakes, peppermint candy-cane sugar cookies, Mexican wedding cookies, almond-orange and almond-raspberry jam thumbprints, break-n-bake chocolate chip cookies (OK, so not EVERYTHING was from scratch, so sue me), and the annual marshmallow fluff fudge. I thought about making shortbread cookies too, but that just kinda seemed like overkill. Heh.

Now all I have to do is pack up the goodies in tins for Rugrat's teachers and the neighbors, and I can officially sit down with a big ol' glass of wine and call it good. Whew!

She's completely insane

CPSIL must have some sort of narcissism disorder. You won't believe this...

I talked to Babydaddy this weekend and told him about the crazy conversation with CPSIL. Apparently, when CPSIL and L split up, they agreed that he would pay for A's daycare expenses and CPSIL would pay for B's daycare. Her whole thing about him not paying for B's daycare? Was because she decided that she didn't want to pay it anymore, and asked him to pay for both A's and B's daycare...and to give her $1500 spousal support. And of course he balked and told her that if she could afford a $1900/month rental house and to go out to concerts and such, she could certainly pay for B's daycare.

That crazy, crazy bitch.

On a happier note, I got ALL my Christmas shopping done on Saturday, and everything is wrapped and ready to go. Yay! I even made lemon pound cakes last night and put them in the freezer. I feel so productive. :-)

Someone kill me now...

No good deed goes unpunished. It's true.

Last week, crazy pseudo-sister-in-law (hereafter referred to as CPSIL) called and cornered me in her usual way: "What are you doing Saturday?" Well, just as I usually do every other weekend, I had Rugrat. Which I told her. Which she KNEW, because she has the same schedule with her kids. So then she asks me to babysit her four-year-old, B, and because I was cornered and she knew I was going to be home with Rugrat, I felt obligated to say OK. So, I figured it wouldn't be a big deal - he'd come & spend the night, the kids would have fun together, and then CPSIL would owe me and I could get her to babysit for ME sometime when I really needed it (read: when GG is in town and I am absolutely desperate to get laid).

So she drops off B on Saturday at about 5 (not 6:30, like she originally said she would - you know, AFTER DINNER). She assured me that he "will eat anything". I made risotto for dinner. You know, rice. With some chicken and peas and mushrooms thrown in. I figured Rugrat would balk a bit but he'd eat some of it, because it's RICE. And he did. But B...well, B took one look and said, "I don't like it." Rugrat and I explained that it didn't matter because that was dinner, and the rule is, you must take one bite for each year of your age and NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT IT and if you are still hungry after that, you can make yourself a waffle. B grumbled and procrastinated a lot, but eventually ate his four bites. Rugrat professed to like it, but still only ate six bites (he said he was "being polite" - he didn't really like it). So afterwards, the two of them made themselves some waffles. Fine, no problem. The boys "play" (read: fight) for a while. Then it comes time to get ready for bed. I look at the woefully small pile of clothes that CPSIL brought over and realize that she forgot to send:

• underwear
• pajamas
• socks
• toothbrush
  

Lovely. So I gather some of Rugrat's old stuff for B to use. Way to be prepared, there, CPSIL!

Rugrat jumps in the shower and starts cleaning up, but B freaked the hell out and wouldn't get in the shower for love or money. Oh nooooo, he only takes baths. Fine, I figured I'd just ditch the "clean up" idea to keep him from going postal. They get jammies on and we read a couple of books. The boys go to bed. And then for the next hour, B and Rugrat are giggling and whispering and getting out of bed until I finally separate them by making Rugrat go to my room. And Rugrat was pretty exhausted by this point, so he fell right to sleep. But B? B kept getting up and opening the door and I kept telling him to go back to bed, for the next half hour. It was almost 10 PM before he finally settled down.

Next morning, B wakes up at the ass-crack of dawn. Yes, before 7 AM. I hear him in Rugrat's bedroom, hollering at him to "get up, it's time to get up!" Rugrat tries to ignore him for a few minutes, but finally drags his poor sleepy butt outta bed and then they come in to wake ME up. I get them settled down with hot cocoa and waffles and a video, then crawl back into bed. But every half hour or so, I hear them hollering and fighting. I keep having to get up and yell at them to BE QUIET, but B and Rugrat together are like a gigantic ball of crazy, and finally I get up. CPSIL calls around 9 AM and says she's on her way to pick up her little one, and then she'll be out to get B. The boys "play" some more, and basically Rugrat is on the verge of a nervous breakdown from having to deal with B all morning and not getting enough sleep the night before.

CPSIL finally gets here around 10:15 and everything goes to hell in a handbasket. B runs away from her, and then when he finally went back downstairs, something happened where I assume she grabbed him and he lost his balance and hurt his hip. I didn't see it, so I don't know what really happened, but B was in total meltdown phase (although after a few seconds it was that "fake crying" that kids do), and then little A, B's younger brother, comes over and B shoves A, and then A is crying and CPSIL is spanking B and everything is craziness. CPSIL orders B to put on his shoes and B of course refuses. I am sick of it all and just want them out of my house now. So I tell B to put on his shoes, and he glares at me. I ask him if he needs some help, and he glares at me some more. I give him a couple seconds, and then I am done. I go over and put his shoes on him, while he's flailing around, trying to kick me. I give him my "don't fuck with me" voice and tell him not to kick me, and he stops. CPSIL is yelling at him again, and I'm like, OMG, just get OUT of my HOUSE! They finally leave and Rugrat & I breathe a big sigh of relief. I swear to myself that I will never, ever send Rugrat over to her house to be babysat. And I will NEVER get roped in to doing it for her again, either.

And then, here is the kicker. Last night, I was sitting at home watching TV, and CPSIL calls me up. She wants to know if I told Babydaddy that she went to a concert on Saturday night. I said, "Yes, Babydaddy came over on Sunday night for dinner, and Rugrat mentioned that B was here so I told him that B spent the night while you went to a concert." So she gets kind of pissy and is like, "Well, you know every time you talk to Babydaddy about what I'm doing, it gets back to L [her soon-to-be-ex-husband]." So I said, "Well, I didn't know it was a state secret." And she was like, "Oh, I'm not mad at you, but L got all fired up and now he won't give me money for B's tuition [daycare fee]." And I'm like, whatever. I told her I didn't want to be in the middle of it. Her problems with L are NOT my problem. Yes, I can agree that he is being an ass, but if she didn't want him to know that she went out, maybe she shouldn't have gone out. Or she should have left B with her parents or something. Because seriously, doesn't she realize that B would tell his dad that he spent the night at Rugrat's house? L is just looking for any possible thing he can blame her for and that is NOT MY PROBLEM. As far as I'm concerned, if she doesn't want me to tell Babydaddy anything, then she shouldn't tell ME anything, because I don't hate Babydaddy; I am actually friends with him. So I talk to him. About things like the horrific babysitting debacle of 2005. And since he and L are brothers, I am sure he DOES tell L things that I say about CPSIL. But honestly? I just don't care. CPSIL and L are two completely insane people, and their fighting is tearing those poor kids apart, but there's nothing I can do about that, so...I'm done. No more going out with CPSIL and no more doing her favors. No more listening to her crazy man-hungry talk and hearing about how she's stalking her latest flavor of the month. No more pretending to sympathize with her dramas when all I can think is, "You brought this on yourself!" Just...no more.

Oh, excellent!

I came across the coolest video today: Lotion by Greenskeepers. Seriously, you MUST watch it. (Warning: not for the faint of heart, or those who've not yet seen The Silence of the Lambs -- too many spoilers.)

Been a while

I know, it's been a while since my last post. So here's the update, in a nutshell:

Thanksgiving was wonderful, except for the fact that I had horrendous allergies all day and even after taking a dose of Benadryl they wouldn't leave me alone. I tried to nap (because that usually helps immensely) but I must have been too excited about seeing family & stuffing my face, because even with the Benadryl fog I couldn't sleep. The food was, of course, delish. And it was lovely to see my cousin Kelly and his girlfriend and baby. :)

A week later (last Thursday) was my company's annual Christmas party. We're a tiny little company so we all went to see Cirque du Soleil and then out to dinner afterwards in SF. Cirque du Soleil was REALLY cool - lots of amazing acrobatics and gorgeous costumes and just...theatrical spectacle, I guess. I was very impressed with the tightrope walker, who balanced way up high on a skinny little wire while hula-hooping about 20 hoops! Afterwards we went to a tiny Basque restaurant for dinner, and had an outstanding meal. Yay for French food!

Speaking of French food, I made a delicious French onion soup last night for dinner. I invited Babydaddy over for dinner, since I knew there would be plenty (and plus it's really, really good and I spent two hours making it, so I thought it would be nice to let someone else enjoy it, too). Yum. My newest addiction is Gruyere. I've been making toast for lunch, with melted Gruyere on top and some freshly ground pepper - for about the last week. Pretty soon I'll get sick of it (I hope! That stuff is expensive) but for now I'm content to scarf the yummy fattening melted cheese every day. Mmmm....cheese...

Also over the weekend, I made cookies and fruitcake. The fruitcake didn't turn out too well - apparently it wasn't cooked all the way on the bottom because half of it stuck in the pan (the NON-STICK pan) when I tried to pull it out. I guess my toothpicks just aren't long enough, because when I stuck it in after baking for 50 minutes, it came out clean. Next time I'll make fruitcake muffins instead. *sigh*

Oh, just go to hell

Remember that weekend, over a month ago, when I looked all cute in my little black skirt and the girls and I went out to D'ville first, and then WC to the dive bar where K knew the bartender? And I met a guy there, and we shared a few kisses, and I called him like I said I would and expected that I'd hear back from him in a couple days?

Well, I didn't. He didn't call me...until today. And he called my friggin' WORK phone number, which is crap, because I am never in the office and I TOLD him to just email me - or he could've called me back on my cell, because that's what I called HIM from. But no. He called the office. Freakin' idiot. So Coworker IMs me and says, "You got a call from JG, here's his number. He said he was returning your call." And I'm like, WHO? Because this was OVER A MONTH AGO. And God, it's not like I have a life or anything, I was just sitting at home waiting for his friggin' phone call. [/sarcasm]

So here I am thinking that this must be something work-related and I'm racking my brain; I just can't figure out what client this is, because...seriously, a MONTH! So I call back and he's like, "Yeah, I just wanted to apologize for not calling you back. I was really busy." FOR A MONTH??? "You're at work aren't you?" Yeah, dumbshit, I am at work. You called me AT WORK. From my business card! After I told you not to! "So, I just wanted to let you know that I hadn't forgotten about you...and you can call me sometime if you want." Yeah, I'll get right the fuck on that, buddy.

Jesus, how desperate do I look?

The anti-fang

When Rugrat was about five months old, he got a tooth. One little bitty tooth, on the bottom. And that was it...he didn't get any more teeth for five months. We called him "Fang."

So on Saturday, he finally lost his first tooth. That one little bitty fang he sprouted when he was a baby. Most of the kids in his class are already growing in half a dozen adult teeth, but my little Rugrat held on to those itty bitty pearly whites for the loooongest time. And then Saturday, it was so loose - he'd been wiggling it all morning. I gave him an apple with his lunch, and halfway through his lunch it was obvious it was coming out really soon (because it was practically horizontal, barely hanging in there) so we went into the bathroom to wiggle it and monitor the progress. The quesadillas got cold, but we stayed in the bathroom, moving it back and forth until it was only held in place by a couple little bits of gum-flesh on the sides. Ewww, that's a gross visual. Anyway, I went upstairs to get the camera and WHILE I WAS GONE Rugrat pulled it out. Dammit. But anyway, it was done, and he was thrilled ("It didn't even hurt at all!"), and we put the tooth in a little box to stick under his pillow for the tooth fairy (who brought him a nice gold dollar coin for it). I took pictures of his gappy little-boy smile but every one I took had him squinting his eyes shut, so I don't think I'll post them here.

I gotta say, though, I don't think he's going to lose another tooth for five months. The one next to it is a little bit loose, but not so much that it's coming out anytime soon. And all the others are very firmly rooted in. Probably in six months or so he'll have a smile that's more "little old man without dentures" than "little boy with buckteeth." They'll all fall out at once, just like they all came in at once, five months after that first fang.

Mosquito Lounge

I tried a new restaurant last night: Mosquito Lounge, in Brentwood. First impression was good - yes, it's located in a tacky stripmall (not even a good stripmall, like the one with Barnes & Noble), but the decor was AWESOME. I absolutely love the atmosphere in that place. Unfortunately, the food sucked. First of all, they don't have any hard liquor, so my cosmo was made with sake, which...okay, it wasn't disgusting, but it wasn't great. Second, the actual food: I ordered crab cakes to start with, and then dragon prawns. Big servings, but ewww. The crab cakes were just warm, not hot. And they were all mushy like they'd used 90% bread crumbs and 10% Krab and seasonings, and then fried those lumps. The sauce was yummy, and the salad served with it was fine. But the "crab" cakes themselves were horrendous. Then, the shrimp. Dear God, is everything in this place fried? Because they were thinly covered with some kind of fried tempura batter or something. And they were overcooked (but at least they were hot!). Again, the sauce was yummy, but the main focus of the dish? Not so much.

So...I won't be going back.

It's like there's some kind of mental block here - the restaurants in the area are all either 1) boring and kinda gross chain restaurants or 2) great atmosphere, lousy food or 3) great food, lousy atmosphere. I went to Strings with Babydaddy and Rugrat last week (again, strip mall location), and the food was fantastic, but it felt like I was dining in a cafeteria. Babydaddy said he'd gone another day and sat on the other side of the restaurant, which was much more atmospheric. Whatever. It's not something I'd take someone to for a fancy dinner, but it's a damn sight better than Chili's.

Disney photos

Here they are!

This first photo was taken during breakfast on Monday morning, at the Storyteller's Cafe in the Grand Californian hotel (where we stayed during this trip). Really nice hotel. Really bad food at this restaurant though.



This next photo was taken in New Orleans Square.


Look at all the gorgeous decorations up for the holidays!


Here's Rugrat with his favorite character (albeit just a statue) - Jack Skellington.


Look how beautiful Sleeping Beauty's castle is! They repainted it and added lots of gold accents, including the five lovely crowns, representing the five decades of Disneyland. (This photo was taken during our Early Entry morning - the park wasn't always this deserted! LOL)


And here's the Haunted Mansion, all decked out in its Nightmare Before Christmas finery. I tried taking some flash-free photos inside but they didn't turn out well at all. :-( You really can't get a feel for how amazing it is without seeing all the fantastic changes they made inside. It was just incredible. My favorite part was the singing jack-o-lanterns.

Jack Skellington

My little monster-child, prior to trick-or-treatiing downtown on the Saturday before Halloween. (Click for a bigger photo.)

Disneyland & date recap

Rugrat discovered the joy of roller coasters on this trip. He was apprehensive about Space Mountain and wanted to "work up to it". So, the first roller coaster we went on was Big Thunder and he loved it. Then we went on the Matterhorn (which I despise, because it's 40 years old and has no padding in the seats anymore and is bumpy as hell). He loved that one too. Finally he felt ready to tackle SM. When it was over I turned around to look at him (he was sitting behind me with Babydaddy) and he had this look of absolute terror on his face and then as I watched he broke into a huge grin and said, "That's the best ride EVER!" So we rode SM a bazillion times. He wouldn't ride California Screamin' (the big roller coaster at California Adventure, with a loop) until the very last day, a few hours before the park closed. He finally decided to ride it, and then THAT was his new favorite ride and he rode it about a half dozen times more before the park closed. LOL

Not a whole lot of people there (Monday-Wednesday) so the lines were short. Haunted Mansion (all decked out in Nightmare Before Christmas finery) was incredible. We went on all our favorites, usually multiple times. We hit Fantasyland on Tuesday morning, when we used Early Entry (you get in one hour early), so we walked right on all the FL rides. No waiting for Peter Pan; no waiting for Dumbo. It was excellent. The weather couldn't have been better - sunny and hot, perfect t-shirt & shorts weather. It actually hit 95 degrees on Monday!!

We had a nice time visiting with Mom & Stepdad too. They left at about mid-day Tuesday, so we had about a day and a half there together. As usual, our visit together was too short and we didn't get a whole lot of time to just catch up & hang out (because we were so busy going on rides!) but it was fun nonetheless.

The only downside was the food. It was terrible. Cold and horribly overpriced. There were a couple of bright spots: the bakery next to Carnation Cafe on Main Street sells great croissants and coffee (all our "real" breakfasts were pretty awful, with cold eggs and "icky" - Rugrat's word - waffles and pancakes). The Napa Rose in our hotel (Grand Californian) was excellent, but incredibly expensive so we only ate there once. White Water Snacks was good - the food is actually cooked when it's ordered, and it seemed less expensive than in the rest of the park (chili cheese dog & lots of hot, fresh fries for about $6). Mostly it seemed like the food was cooked and then left under heat lamps all day, so you'd get chicken strips that were cooked an hour ago and barely warm from the lamps. It was just gross.

Now....Monday night! My date with GG went REALLY, REALLY well. So well, in fact, that I am not going to jinx it by giving details. Let's just say that the chemistry and attraction was definitely still there (but I was a good girl and restrained myself). And he is coming up to the bay area to visit family at Thanksgiving. :-D

P.S. Pictures coming soon!

I've got a date!

With GG - my first "boyfriend" from high school!

I found him on myspace.com a few months ago & we've been emailing back and forth for a couple of months. He lives down in LA and I haven't seen him in FIFTEEN YEARS, y'all! So we're going to meet up on Monday night - Halloween - to catch up and have drinks. Can I just say...I am SO excited about this! (Yes, I've seen pictures...and YES, he is still totally my type and smokin' hot to boot!)

Dizz Knee Land

We're getting really excited here about our Disneyland trip next week...yesterday I spent way too much money on eBay - but I got four tickets to Mickey's Halloween Treat! It's a special trick-or-treat party they're having at California Adventure. It's three hours, from 7:30-10:30 on Sunday night (after regular park hours; it closes at 6 PM that day). There are several "trick or treat" stations where you get candy, and a bunch of photo opportunities with the characters. Some of the rides will be open, and I heard that you can play the carnival games for free (they give out candy as prizes, rather than toys). Whee!

Grout!

OK, tile is finally grouted. Yay!

My weekend

Friday night I had a craigslist date. I'm not really sure why I keep putting myself through this, it never turns out any differently. The guy was nice, polite, not hideously ugly or anything, but there was no spark at all. Our date was over an hour and a half after it began, and that included dinner. But no goodnight kiss. (WTF?)

Saturday night I went out with the girls. And if I say so myself, I looked pretty hot: tight black skirt, lavender and black patterned cami with a black v-neck cardigan and a lavender sash at my waist. And my hair was all big bouncy curls, kind of 40's but without the shellac. We went to a dance club down in D'ville, but left after a couple hours because the crowd was almost completely made up of couples. Kind of useless, when we were looking so good. So we headed back to da Creek, and went to a dive bar. My friend K knew one of the bartenders (whose parents own the bar), and after some wrangling with the asshole bouncer, we got in for free and got free drinks. I met this adorable boy - and I do mean boy. I can't remember how old he said he was (ok, so I was a wee bit tipsy) but he was at least 6-8 years younger than me. That's ok, I just want a boytoy anyway. Anyway, I got his card (and a few kisses) and told him I'd call him the next day (yesterday), which I did. Now he'll wait the requisite two days and then call me back. *sigh* I really hate the game.

I woke up on K's couch with a glorious hangover and spent most of the day recovering from that, and then getting a pedicure. :) But the very best part of my weekend actually occurred early this morning, when I had the most fabulous dream. I dreamed I was Kendall (from All My Children - and yes, I am a total dork), and Zach had me pinned up against a wall. Unfortunately I woke up before it was...*ahem*...consummated, but even so - this was the hottest dream I've had in years. I really need to get laid, y'all.

The end of babyhood...

I finally gave up the last little teeny tiny part of me that thought that MAYBE someday I might have another child. I sold my glider (rocking chair) on craigslist tonight.

I had no problems getting rid of Rugrat's crib, his changing table, his stroller (well, actually, that filthy thing is still in the garage because I couldn't even GIVE it away). Baby clothes? Gone, for the most part - I kept a few things for sentimental reasons, but handed down the rest of his barely-worn, gorgeous baby clothes. I was the first one to have a baby in my group - everyone else came after. And almost all of those babies were boys, so my hand-me-downs were always in demand among the sisters-in-law and friends. Baby toys were disposed of too, given to cousins or donated to charities.

But I held on to the glider. I had such lovely memories of holding my little infant Rugrat, nursing him, rocking him, singing to him. Sitting upright, rocking in the middle of the night, asleep - both of us. It's amazing that you can actually continue to rock the chair and be sound asleep at the same time, but I'm sure I'm not the only mother who's done it. When he got a wee bit older, we'd snuggle up in the chair to read bedtime stories.

Time marched on, and Rugrat got too big for us to share the chair anymore (without my legs falling asleep, that is). So the chair sat, unused, in his room until we moved two years ago. Then the chair migrated to MY room. I had some fleeting idea about it being a "reading chair" because it's so comfortable. But when I read in my bedroom, I read in bed. And the chair ended up just holding stacks of clean clothes.

Why did I keep the chair for so long? I kept thinking that someday I might meet someone and get married. And someday we might decide that it would be totally cool to have a baby together. And if that happened - if I somehow changed my mind and thought, "OK, it would be fine to have another baby. I could totally live through another twelve months of being a braindead zombie. I could totally put up with a few more years of diapers and tantrums and whining and picky eating and the nonstop physical and emotional drain," if I REALLY TRULY believed that...then I'd want to have a glider. So I held on to it for way longer than I should have.

And now it's gone. That last little bit of Rugrat's infancy. That last little link to breastfeeding, which was totally the best (and worst) part of the first six months of his life. So I'm a little sad. But still, it's good to move on.

Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Rugrat, Babydaddy and I went to see this movie yesterday. I love W&G - I've seen all three of the earlier movies - and I wasn't disappointed with this one. It was really cute. My favorite thing was Lady Tottington's very veggie dresses. I didn't notice it until near the end of the movie, but some of her dresses were meant to emulate vegetables: at the competition she was dressed as a carrot, and in the final scene she was dressed as an ear of corn. Adorable!

Zippity doo dah

Dad & stepmom came over on Saturday for my birthday. I ran off to a seminar at the library on starting your own small business, and while I was gone, they started changing the switches and electrical outlets in the house. I don't mean that they started rewiring them so as to completely confound me, but that they switched the actual switches and outlets from nasty almond to a lovely, clean white. So...whee! I have all new outlets & switches, including GFCIs in the kitchen & bath (which were not there before, despite the violated building codes). Bitchin' birthday present, even if dad nearly gave himself a heart attack doing it all in one day. Seriously, I was hollerin' at him to TAKE A FRIGGIN BREAK ALREADY by the time he started on the upstairs rooms. He was turning purple and huffin' and puffin' every time he had to get back up off the floor.

I also got a fabulous birthday dinner of boeuf bourgignon and garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed spinach with pine nuts and sultanas (golden raisins). And dessert: creme brulee. Who can resist that? In addition, I marinated myself in pinot noir and a good snort of that fabulous $200 scotch. Amazingly enough, I was NOT hung over the next day (may have something to do with the fact that I basically passed out at 9 PM and slept TWELVE HOURS).

And now I am 32. I was thinking the other day about how I could be on that old television show Thirtysomething now.

Haircut tonight! Will celebrate with something a little different - very long bangs (or very short layers) and at least four inches off the ends. My hair has gotten unwieldy, y'all. The last time I actually styled my hair (blow dry, curling iron, etc.) it took forever. I have at least four inches of incredibly dry ends that resemble straw. AND I woke up in the middle of the night a few times with my hair wrapped around my neck and trying to strangle me. I don't want my hair to be so long that it's strangling me. Seriously. And when I'm not laying down, the hair occasionally will wrap under my armpit and my head gets yanked to the side. That's just too long.

My favorite day of the week

...is now officially Wednesdays. Between Lost and Veronica Mars, plus a healthy helping of my newest favorite train wreck, America's Next Top Model...I am just in heaven.

Saturday...meh. Wednesday is the new IT day!

Yum!

Mmmmm...made the greatest dinner tonight! Roasted tiny potatoes and butternut squash soup. Thank god for Williams Sonoma!

Oh, and La Bicyclette merlot. Cheap and tasty, at $10/bottle!

"Spring" cleaning

Today I spent three hours weeding in the backyard and planting spring bulbs. Almost 250 spring bulbs, actually. I planted:

• 90 crocuses
  
• 88 tulips
• 36 daffodils
• 22 hyacinths

I'm exhausted. And I didn't even do what I was REALLY supposed to do, which is to grout the tile in the entryway. Why didn't I do it? Because my friggin' drill doesn't fit the whirlygig mixer-thingy I got to mix up the grout. How is that possible? Aren't they a standard size? I dunno, but Babydaddy said I would need a corded (as opposed to cordless) drill anyway, because you have to mix the stuff for five minutes. Yeeeaaahhh.

So, no grout yet. But I will have an abundance of spring flowers this year. :-)

Lost...Arrrrggghhhh!

OK, seriously. What fresh hell is this???

#1 - Michael's whole flashback stuff. Why? What was the point? I thought it was spelled out really clearly last season that 1) he loves his kid, 2) his ex was a raging bitch and 3) eventually she manipulated him into giving up his parental rights so her new hubby could adopt him. So what was the whole frigging point of this flashback? That he gave Walt a stuffed polar bear? Jesus H Christ.

#2 - WASTE OF TIME, folks. All the little bits they re-showed from last week? Why couldn't they have just made the season premiere last week be 2 hours long? Oh, yeah. Because they wanted to have 23 (!!) episodes this season.

#3 - Waiting all damn hour to see Jin. I was getting pretty worried about him, actually. And the tailaways? Not exactly stunning, y'all. Not when it's been spoiled left, right & center.

#4 - Jack is still an unsufferable ass.

But on the plus side:

#1 - Numbers resetting the countdown thingamajig. How much you wanna bet that if Dezzy doesn't reset it in time, Lostzilla starts yanking trees underground?

#2 - Ooooh, what's with the patch? Eagle-eyed TWoP'ers saw the exact same logo ON THE SHARK!!!! WTF????? (I totally missed it, but will re-watch tomorrow.) Must be more of that loverly "island security system." Shark scenes were very tense overall; I liked that bit.

#3 - Kate & the Kandy. I was hollerin' at her to "go on, girl, get your chocolate on!" Hee!

The decline of literacy

I'm disgusted. I've come to expect poor spelling and grammar from the vast majority of online personal ads. I cringe at (but am not particularly surprised to see) the horrible spelling and poor sentence structure in the little local community newspaper. But I found at least three spelling errors in a single article on CNN.com. CNN!! I am just...aghast. I cannot believe how far the level of literacy in our country has fallen.

Dammit, pick up a freakin' book and READ, y'all! Expand your brain a bit!

My little artist

Rugrat is such an amazing artist. He just keeps on surprising me. Kid has got some mad skillz! This is one his most recent creations:



Seriously - check out the gnarly skeleton on the flaming skateboard! I love his expression - the hand position, the forked tongue sticking out...it just rocks. And the angry sun & moon in the upper corners - so cool! Not sure what to make of the flying/boarding dragon/cobra though, LOL.

Carpet is done!

Looks FANTASTIC. Feels silky soft and super-cushy too. Yay!

God, I'm so freakin' tired. I just want to sleeeeeeeep. I have been having serious insomnia the last week or two, and haven't been able to fall asleep until at least 1 or 2 AM. I'm just exhausted, y'all.

Stinky

My carpet is being installed. Dude, it smells AWFUL. What is that crap they use to glue down the pad? Toxic waste?

Sittin' outside on the patio trying to squint & see my laptop screen. Glare sucks.

Lost!! Squeee!!!!

OK, how big a dork am I? I am so excited about the Lost season premiere tonight that I am literally bouncing around the house. Yes, I need to finish moving stuff out of the bedrooms before the carpeting guys come tomorrow. Yes, I should be working for the next half hour. But all I can think about is...just a few more hours 'til Lost!!! God, I am SO that show's bitch.

OK, here's my wish list for this season:

• Kate gets ripped to pieces by Lostzilla so I don't have to look at her whiny bitchface anymore
• Sawyer has RHMS with someone (but not Kate, because she'll be teeny tiny bits of gore splattered around the jungle)
• Jin & Sun get jiggy
• We find out how Locke ended up in a wheelchair
• We find out what is down the hatch...REALLY SOON
• We find out what the deal is with the Others
• We find out what the deal is with the Numbers
• We find out what the deal is with Craphole Island in general
• We get answers...any answers...to any of the big questions. And we don't have to wait all damn season for those answers.

Please, God, let it be so.

Tile is done!

Well, it's not grouted yet (we decided it needed grout after all - the tiles are way too irregular to try and do it groutless). But it's all stuck to the ground. And it looks freakin' fantastic! Here's a picture of Babydaddy laying the tile yesterday.

Carpet is being installed on Thursday. I am so excited! My house is going to look SO much better. :) Of course then I'll want to gut my kitchen...

Rest in peace

A good friend of mine died last night. I never met him in person, but for the last seven years he's been a part of my life, each and every day. He maintained a bulletin board that I visit almost daily. For seven years, this board has been a constant source of comfort, joy, support, love and hope. When Rugrat had his toothbrush accident, I got cards from people all over the country (and Canada), as well as gifts and prayers and good wishes. Whenever there is a tragedy, the board rallies around and takes care of the person in need. When something wonderful happens, we tell the board, and everyone rejoices with us. Daily frustrations, parenting questions, recipes, television show recaps, movie reviews, high-profile criminal trials, jokes, games, pictures, poems, songs...we share it all. When our "board babies" pass a milestone, everyone marvels at how fast time flies. When politics is the dominant topic of the day we all choose sides and argue - sometimes getting a bit out of hand - but we come back "home" after we've cooled down and taken a breather. In other words...we're friends. We're there for each other. We are a huge "virtual" support network and I am blessed to have found the board. MikeyD made it possible for us to have a place we could come to online, anytime, to find a friend.

RIP, Mike Helton. Your RT HO's will miss you every day. :'-(

New carpet!

I ordered new carpeting this weekend, finally. And what the hell is wrong with me that I needed to get the absolute most expensive carpeting in the whole freakin' store?? Over $5 per square foot! Thank goodness for the Home Depot 20% discount sale -- but even that didn't bring down the price too terribly much, because I've got stairs to carpet (you know they charge extra for each one) AND I asked them to move the furniture. Do you know how much they charge for moving furniture? For two bedrooms? $350! I couldn't believe it! I'm going to call back and tell them I'll move my own damn furniture for that price, and give me back my $350.

Sheesh.

On the plus side, me finally ordering carpet has galvanized Babydaddy, who (in a fit of generosity that I never expected or asked for) offered to install new tile in my entryway. So last night he took out the old tile. Only took about half an hour - I would've thought it would take longer than that, but he was lickity split. We're going to install the new tile this weekend, which means I better get my butt out and buy it. Heh. I'm doing slate tiles, since it's such a tiny area (about 30 sf) - and that means we won't have to grout!! YAY! No grout! That's the most irritating part of tile installation anyway.

Whew! No evil spirits...

...in my garage. ;-)

Turns out it was a problem with the remote control that was hooked to the visor in my car. There's a little metal thing inside it that sends the signal to the opener when it's pressed down. Since the opener & remote are so darn old, the metal thing isn't as "springy" as it used to be. The garage door guy bent the little metal thing and put the remote back together and now all is well.

My garage door opener is POSSESSED!

Holy crap! My garage door opener just went batshit. I was upstairs, working in the office and I heard the door open, and thought that Babydaddy had come over with his nephew to mow my lawn. But then I heard the door shut...and nobody came to the front door. And then the garage door opened AGAIN...and shut AGAIN. Finally after about 3 full cycles I went down to find out what was going on and walked into my garage and saw the garage door just...open by itself. And then it shut partway, and then it opened partway...and then it shut. I tried punching the button on the wall and it didn't seem to do anything. But then a few seconds later it opened again. The HELL????

So I placed this panicked call to my home warranty company and they are sending out an emergency technician to look at it tonight. Man, this is freaky as hell, though!

My doctor

Look, I really like my doctor. I do. He's very thorough; he keeps track of what's going on and doesn't let shit slip through the cracks. He's not stingy with prescriptions if I need 'em.

But he runs SO far behind. Like, hours behind. If I have an appointment for 10 AM or later, I can guarantee that I'll be there for three hours; two of those hours spent in the freezing waiting room.

This morning I had a follow-up appointment at 8:30 AM. Just a "quick" appointment so I could give him my blood pressure record (kept track of over the last two weeks) and he could give up and put me back on HCTZ. So after about 5-10 minutes in the waiting room, they called me back. I thought, "Cool, I got right in. I'll be at my desk by 9:15". Forty-five minutes later, I was still waiting to see the doctor, but in the freezing exam room instead of the freezing waiting room. FINALLY at 9:30, the doctor came in. I was seriously pissed. I mean, at 8:30 in the morning he was already an hour behind schedule? What the HELL?

Anyway, as I predicted...back on HCTZ. I suppose at 31, with intermimittent blood pressure issues over the last five years, it's time for me to finally acknowledge the fact that I will be on medication for the rest of my life. It's not awful stuff, I mean, it doesn't have horrible side effects or anything, but it just sucks that I'll be popping pills for the rest of my life. Why does this bother me? I've been taking birth control almost continuously for the last fifteen years. Another tiny little pill shouldn't be a big deal. I guess I just don't like the idea that I'm getting old. No, 31 isn't old. But high blood pressure? That's pretty much an old person's disease.

Just shut the fuck up, part 2

This one is aimed at C's hubby (Rugrat's uncle). Oh, and C herself. Because I am fucking pissed at the way she dragged me into her shit and I'm pissed at him for putting me on the spot.

Here's how it all went down: remember the night a couple weeks ago when C & I went out? Well she had told her hubby that she was going out with people from work. Why? I don't know. She seemed to think that he would be more "OK" with her going out with them, than with me. Whatever. But then she got trashed. And, since I was the designated driver for the evening, I had to drive her home. Which is fine. But she left her car at my house and then had to come back early the next morning to get it because she had an appt for something (I forget what). So her hubby had to drive her to MY house to get her car. Which looked kind of fishy, since the original story was that she went out with work peeps & then "ran into" me in WC.

So, fast-forward to this weekend. C has told her hubby that she wants a separation. Hubby goes out with his brothers, gets all riled up about shit. C has gone to Oregon to visit her brother & "clear her head." Whatever. C's hubby calls me like four times in the space of a half hour on Saturday morning. I finally give up on the whole "sleep a little longer" thing and pick up the phone. And there he is, asking me what exactly went down when C & I went out that one night. He wants to know if it was planned between the two of us in advance. He says he has phone records, blah blah blah. He wants me to tell him the truth, because his wife obviously is lying to him, blah blah blah bitchcakes. He says he wants to know so that he can decide how to proceed with the whole separation thing, because he thinks she's just stringing him along and she's not really working on saving their marriage. I told him I did not want to be involved, that it was their problem and they needed to work it out themselves. And he started getting upset, saying that I *was* involved because my rugrat is their kids' cousin. I said yes, I am a part of your (collective) lives, but that doesn't mean I'm involved in your marital problems. He starts badgering me some more, and I said that we did talk beforehand about possibly meeting up in WC, because we were both going to be there. And he just jumped all over that: "Well then how did her car get to your house, huh??" I didn't say a word. He starts freaking out, asking me if she's "doing something she shouldn't be" and I'm like, "No! Look, chill out..." and he says, "Are you telling me to chill out?" and that's when it really started getting uncomfortable. So I told him that I wasn't going to put up with him talking to me that way, that I wasn't a child, and that the conversation was over. And then I hung up.

So now, I am like the world's biggest bitch because I wouldn't give him ammunition for his next fight with C? Dude, fight your own fucking battles. Don't pull me into this shit. I don't need the aggravation. And seriously, if you think your wife is lying to you, and you don't trust her to tell you the truth? If you believe she might be screwing around on you? What could I possibly fucking say that would make you feel better?

And fuck C for asking me to lie for her in the first place. Dammit, that shit is NOT cool. I can't always be remembering her latest fucking fairy tale.

Just shut the fuck up

God, I HATE it when Boss is being a complete dumbass. How many different ways do I have to explain something to him? Jesus H. Christ. And the doctor wonders why my blood pressure is so high? Yeah, this is part of it. Stupid people. In fact, stupid people that I have to deal with every FUCKING day.

I had to explain to him SEVERAL times why we went over the estimated hours. For one thing, what was requested of me originally (when I was asked to make an hours estimate) is NOT what was in the specs. And what they put in the specs is fucking impossible. They somehow wanted a URL to magically appear on the server, and homie don't play dat. Basically I tried for half a day to mess with the 404 processing on the dev server to "catch" these stray URLs, and it simply is impossible. Oh, and for another thing, they changed the fucking requirements halfway through the project. And even with all that, we're not over the hours by much.

I hate feeling like I need to scream at him to just shut the fuck up already. He's all, "But I don't understaaaaand...." Well, then live with your ignorance. Because I'm not going to explain it again. OK, I think I officially hate my job.

But, on the other hand...I have been quit for 4 Weeks, 2 Days, 15 hours, 34 minutes and 41 seconds. I have saved $98.82 by not smoking 459 cigarettes. I have saved 1 Day, 14 hours and 15 minutes of my life. My Quit Date: 8/7/2005 12:30 AM.

I have nothing against gay guys, but...

I don't want to date them. Seriously, I don't. Yes, it may seem that every guy I'm hot for ends up being gay, but it's not on PURPOSE.

I met a guy on Friday night when I was out with the girls. He seemed nice enough; he's in the IT field, which means we had something in common. He's Italian (looks a lot like a young DeNiro, actually), right age range, a few inches taller than me, nice bod. It's all good, right? So we went out on Sunday night to dinner. Nice dinner, great food, he definitely dropped some cash on the meal, etc. Afterwards we walked around downtown WC (it was late, everything was closed). We talked quite a bit about home decor, since we're both kind of into that. And he pointed out some great stores I hadn't noticed before (I had no clue there was a high-end store selling Jimmy Choo shoes in downtown WC). We were VERY comfortable with each other, and found lots to talk about...and yet, he seemed very preoccupied with making sure that people didn't think he was gay. I suggested going to a certain fabric store & having a pillow custom-made for his extra-deep couch, and he said he didn't want to go in to the store by himself because people might think he was gay. That sort of thing came up over & over in the course of the evening.

So, at the end of the night, he walks me back to my car & we say our goodbyes. He kissed me: once, twice, three times...and each time, it was like kissing a family member. Not at all like kissing a DATE. No tongue, for one thing. No passion AT ALL, for another. It was just...meh.

He is so, so gay. Shit.

New Orleans

What the HELL? Why is it taking so damn long to get help to the people down there? It's a disgrace. For four days now, they've been stranded with no food, no water, no electricity, inadequate medical assistance, and ineffective law enforcement. And to top it all off, the weather there is in the mid-90's with high humidity. Can you imagine being outside in 90+ degree heat all day, with 75% humidity, with no water and no possibility of going into a nice air conditioned building? Now imagine that, surrounded by garbage, dead bodies, and crap. Literally, crap. It's disgusting and horrifying.

Bush, get off your ass and get some fucking help down there NOW! We keep hearing that "help is coming" -- but it's been FOUR DAYS. And the help that gets through is woefully inadequate. Not enough troops to restore order. Not enough buses to evacuate people. Not enough food and water and medical help to keep them alive until they CAN be evacuated. People are dropping like flies down there. And the ones that aren't dying of starvation or dehydration or for lack of medical attention are getting raped and shot by roving gangs of thugs, desperate to impose some sense of control on their world. I've been crying for days, hearing about the mess down there.

And New Orleans is probably gone for good. Which is a damn shame, because that was one seriously FUN town. Even if they do rebuild the city, it will never be the same. And I don't think it's a certainty that they will rebuild, considering how much it will cost and the likelihood that a catastrophe like this might happen again. I mean, the whole town is below sea level. If it were me, and I woke up one morning to find my house underwater and I knew that it could easily happen again, and that I'd be stranded for days with no help? I'd move my ass to higher ground, y'all. All the jazz and beignets and bananas foster and lagniappe and beads and hurricanes (the libation, not the natural disaster) in the world wouldn't induce me to live there.

I'm in mourning.

Ouch!

Here's a riddle for you: Who's stupid and clumsy and typing only with her left hand? Yes, me!

I made tuna casserole for dinner tonight. I pulled it out of the oven just fine with the potholder, then set the potholder down and reached for the 350° handle. Stupid? You betcha! Got what is likely a second-degree burn on half my hand. Hurts like hell, y'all.

Oh, and: I have been quit for 3 Weeks, 4 Days, 19 hours, 41 minutes and 26 seconds. I have saved $83.26 by not smoking 387 cigarettes. I have saved 1 Day, 8 hours and 15 minutes of my life. My Quit Date: 8/7/2005 12:30 AM

Hurricane Katrina

Man, what a horrific disaster. My heart goes out to all those poor people in the south who are homeless and jobless now. And dude! New Orleans! Is totally fucked!!! I was just there last summer with my friend M, and the idea of it all being underwater? Scary.

Of course, we're going to get royally screwed at the gas pumps now. And this winter? Sure to be a record-breaking PG&E bill, since they'll take advantage of the opportunity to raise the rates. The thing that gets me with the gas stations & the electric companies: do you ever hear of prices going DOWN? They claim that gas prices will shoot up for a couple of months and then "normalize." What that means is that they'll just not rise as fast anymore. Gas prices won't drop below $3 ever again, not once they've got it over that hump. It will probably climb to about $4 and then maybe, if we're lucky, it will drop back down to $3.50 and stay there. But we won't see $2.50 again. Ever.

And hello? What's with all the freakin' insane weather anyway? Is this global warming finally taking effect in a dramatic way? Very, very scary, y'all. We thought last winter's Florida hurricanes were bad? This is much, much worse. And honestly, it's not looking like the weather is going to be normal ever again either. The "natural disasters" just keep on coming. Actually, now that I think about it...California is overdue for a devastating earthquake, isn't it? As long as we've got a big ol' chunk of the southern U.S. out of commission, why not crack off the coastline for a couple hundred miles and drop it into the ocean? Amazingly enough, we haven't even had any really devastating wildfires in California this year, despite the six months straight of rain we had last winter and the consistently hot, dry summer we're having. Knock on wood.

New job?

Keep your fingers crossed for me...I applied for a new job today & they are moving FAST with the phone interviews! Sounds like an ideal fit for me: liberal-minded, progressive, etc.; great benefits; stable & growing business. If they can deal with my telecommuting & meet my salary requirements, I'll jump at it. Yes, I'll feel bad for leaving CurrentEmployer in the lurch, especially with Boss's father practically on his deathbed, but I can't keep hemorrhaging money every month. I've been working there for a year and a half, stealing from my savings account and running up debt. I just can't keep doing this.

One of the great things about being a Mommy...

...is that I've got someone who appreciates my horrific, off-key singing. He actually asks me to sing to him before he goes to sleep. It's so sweet. I think maybe his brain shuts off in self-defense though, because as soon as I start singing he starts yawning...it's like his brain wants to become comatose as soon as possible so it doesn't have to suffer through my singing. LOL

He's so adorable when he's sleeping though. So peaceful, so completely opposite his bouncing-off-the-walls waking self.

Am I getting old?

I went back to the doctor yesterday for my follow-up appointment after last week's physical. Blood pressure: still high. Cholesterol: still high. Tetanus? Not boosted for about, oh, 25 years. Hepatitis A & B? Yeah, apparently I've never been vaccinated against them either.

So...three shots in the left arm (Hep A, Hep B, Tetanus). Ouch.

I'm supposed to take my blood pressure every day for two weeks & keep a record of it. Then I go in and he'll put me back on medication, because the blood pressure is not going to go down in two weeks, I can guaran-fucking-tee it. Cholesterol? Doc told me to start taking niacin tablets (I hate that shit) again, and add flaxseed oil capsules along with the fish oil capsules I started taking last week. Oh, and he gave me this loooooverly handout with my new low-cholesterol diet on it. Get this: I'm supposed to eat/drink only skim milk dairy products. Like hell. I'll be damned if I'm going to eat SKIM MILK CHEESE. Sorry, but life is not worth living without good cheese.

Foods to avoid: everything I love. Such as:

• bacon, hamburgers, salami, SHRIMP
  
• avocados!!!!
• cashews, macadamia nuts
• croissants
  
• rich baked goods with eggs, shortening and/or sugar (and that would leave exactly WHAT baked goods?)
• butter, gravy, bacon drippings, cream sauces (waaaaah!)
• sugared soft drinks
• fried snack foods (like I'm going to give up potato chips!)

Oh yeah, this is going to be loads of fun. Not.

Quit v.2005 update

I have been quit for 2 Weeks, 3 Days, 16 hours, 50 minutes and 3 seconds. I have saved $57.07 by not smoking 265 cigarettes. I have saved 22 hours and 5 minutes of my life. My Quit Date: 8/7/2005 12:30 AM

Except for that one smoke I had laaaaate Saturday night after that bottle & a half of wine. The one I was actually going to WALK to 7-11 for (yeah, at midnight. I was HAMMERED, y'all). K insisted on driving me there & back, which was awfully damn nice of her. K was over because we had girl's night "in" instead of "out" for a change...take-out pizza, wine, and DVDs. Anyhoo, K drove me down to 7-11 and I bought a pack. She dropped me back off at home, and went on her merry way. I lit up, smoked my smoke, and then somehow managed to watch half of Sense & Sensibility before passing out. The next morning I awoke, thoroughly disgusted with my lack will power under the influence of copious amounts of drink. I threw away the pack (yay!) and the lighter (YAY!). I drank a ton of water. I went back to bed (YAY!!!!!).

Oh, and I *did* go out this weekend, with crazy C, my sort-of ex-sister-in-law. She was never really my SIL because rugrat's dad & I never actually got hitched, but she is practically my SIL anyway, so I usually just call her that for simplicity's sake. Anyhoo...we went out because she is all pissed at her hubby (my ex's brother). She's decided that she definitely wants to divorce him but she basically wants to have somebody lined up first. This is not how she says it, but it's basically what she means. I told her that's fucked up. Either leave him or don't, but don't play those stupid games.

So anyway, she said that night (Friday) that she wanted to flirt with someone. OK fine. Flirt away. But when I was ready (very, very ready) to leave at midnight, she did NOT want to go. We were out dancing at a club and I wasn't drinking (OK, I had one drink after dinner) in order to keep my will power & refrain from smoking. But still, at the club there's always people outside smoking, and I really really wanted one. So I was ready to go, or have a cigarette - one of the two. And I told her, "I'm leaving in five minutes. If you're not ready to go, you can find your own way home." Harsh, yes. But I'd been telling her for half an hour that I wanted to leave, and I was done. She pouted the whole way home because [**whine**] "I wanted to kiss someone!" The hell??? If you want to do it, just do it. Fer chrissakes, it's not like she didn't have ANY opportunities. Men were dancing with her. She didn't really want to just kiss someone. She wanted to meet her "soulmate" and fall in love so she could have an escape route when she left her hubby and her two kids.

So yesterday evening she calls me, and she's all, "How would you feel about renting out a room?" Um, no. For one thing, I would never, EVER live with her. For another, it's not like I have a whole lot of spare room here. It's a little three-bedroom house, and that third bedroom is my office, and it's jam-packed with books. Boxes & boxes of books. Not to mention spare computers and stuff.

So then she goes on & on about how her hubby will lie in divorce court about how much he makes, because he's been lying for years on his tax returns (he owns his own roofing company). And then she won't get any child support. And I'm like, what the hell? You have a job, woman. You guys are going to share custody of the kids, right? So if you are sharing custody, and you have a good-paying job, what the hell do you need his money for? I mean, yes, you will each pay half of the daycare & so on, but beyond that...what the fuck? And she tries to tell me that she should be able to keep the same level of lifestyle after the divorce. I cut her right off. Um, no. You don't get to keep the same lifestyle. You will be living in separate houses; it costs a lot more money to keep up two households than it does to keep up one. You will probably have to sell your new BMW and get something cheaper. You will not get to be a privileged little princess anymore.

But she was insistent that she should get some of his money because she "worked to support them while he built up his business." OK, I don't know where the hell she's getting this from, but I distinctly remember her quitting and getting fired from jobs several times over the years, and being out of work for quite a while, and he was supporting HER. And I also remember when she first moved in with him, when they were dating/engaged, and she refused to pay him any rent because she wasn't on his mortgage and she didn't think she should have to pay anything. And I ALSO remember that she is a fucking narcissistic whack-job who thinks the world should revolve around her and what she wants. That is all.

Woman is on crack, y'all. She is just...on crack.

Anxious

I've been all jittery for about a week now. I indulged in about $500 worth of retail therapy this weekend, and couldn't seem to spend myself into a state of calm. I drank a $120 bottle of 7-yr-old cabernet, plus another half a bottle of pinot noir, and woke up with an awful hangover, but I was still acting like a coke fiend after half a dozen lines and an entire pot of coffee.

I think I've alienated GG...he probably thinks I am a freaky stalker because I always email him back immediately. It's the equivalent of picking up your phone on the first ring, I think. And he is probably gay. Gay, gay, gay. It would be just my luck. Because I always seem to fall for the guys that are gay. I'm always going out with friends and saying "He's hot," and my friends will say, "He's gay." Always happens, y'all. And yanno, it's been 15 years at least since I saw him last; a person can discover a lot about themselves in 15 years. True, we had carnal knowledge of each other in high school -- but that was high school, and maybe he got a little older and thought to himself, "Self: you do not like screwing women. You only want to see someone naked if they have a penis." It could happen. It does, all the time, in towns all across the country. Yes, GG is probably gay.

So I am trying to convince myself that he is gay so that I don't have to think about the fact that I am thinking about him ALL THE F'ING TIME, y'all. I think about how I can make it seem casual if I drive down to SoCal for Labor Day weekend (a good 8-10 hours one way). Yes, my mom lives down there, but...yeah, it's just not casual. It's stalker-y. I can't go down for Labor Day weekend. He does not WANT to see me. Because he is gay, y'all. But I haven't asked him if he wants to see me...because wouldn't he have volunteered that information by now? Like just a "hey, I'd love to see you sometime, here is my number, call if you're in the area"? Because that's what I did on my 2nd or 3rd email to him. Maybe he didn't do that because he doesn't know where he's going to be living. Since he's looking for a job, and is willing to pretty much move anywhere, that means he doesn't know where he's gonna be in a month or two or whatever. Right? It doesn't mean that he never wants to see me.

Oh jesus, I need to get a fucking grip. He is like a myth, a figment of my imagination. Even if I DID see him again? And he wasn't gay? He would probably be an asshole, because he's in his 30's and he's not married; so what does that tell you? Either gay, or divorced (read: bitter and never getting married again), or player (read: never getting married, period). So I need to give it up because I am getting all worked up over something that is NEVER going to happen.

Oh dear God, he's smokin' HOT!

So I'd just about convinced myself that it was too good to be true and GG would have to be fat or bald or something. But I just saw pictures of him (very recent; 2 months old), and he is SMOKIN' HOTTTT! He is exactly my type...tall, dark, on the slender side. Very mediterranean-looking. And did I mention that he's freakin' HOT?!?! Jesus.

Oh, and no ring on the left hand. No tan line from a missing ring either.

I seriously want to jump his bones.

Oh. My. God.

GG!! The boy who was the focus of all my early high school fantasies! The boy I lost my virginity to (well, I didn't really lose it...more like I threw it at him)! He of the glorious dimples!

Well, GG is on myspace. And he is now one of my myspace friends. And we are conversing via email. And he is still in the state, actually within driving distance. Well, for a long weekend...not for an afternoon. But he would like to live closer...up here in the bay area, in fact. And he was actually up here last WEEK!! Last week, y'all! Why am I so jacked about this? For God's sake, I haven't seen the guy in probably 15 years...but he was my first love, for sure. In fact, I'd say he was my first obsession. And we are conversing via email! And I gave him my phone numbers and told him to call the next time he's up here! God, I'm so transparent. Will he think I'm a total stalker chick, after FIFTEEN YEARS? But he is SO nice in email...*sigh* I'm half in love with him again already.

Jury Duty. Fuck.

Went for jury duty today. I was highly tempted to bum a cigarette from someone but I resisted. Nearly two weeks now without nicotine.

Anyhoo, I didn't get selected for the jury. That's cool. But after the jury panel and an alternate had been selected, the goddamn judge went into this lame-ass five minute fucking monologue about how fantastic jury duty is and how we should all be thrilled that we got to waste a fucking day. Seriously. If he wanted to deliver a sermon on the glories of the justice system, couldn't he have done it when we first got there, instead of waiting until we're all just fucking DYING to run out the door?

Grrrr....

Oh, and I totally f'ed up my alarm clock. Last night I set it to go off a half hour early so I'd have a chance to blow dry my hair & look halfway decent (in the hopes that I'd get out of the courthouse early enough to swing by DMV and rectify that hideous mess they call my driver's license photo). Anyway...somehow I set the CLOCK an hour ahead. So this morning, I wake up, clock says 6:30, I drag my really fucking tired ass out of bed, pop in my lenses, brush my teeth, and hop in the shower. I get out of the shower thinking, "Damn, it's still awfully dark outside. Shouldn't the sun have come up by now?" I blow dry my hair. I head downstairs to make coffee, and what do I see? Yeah, it's now six AM. Not seven, like it says on my alarm clock. Six. I wrenched my butt outta bed at 5:30 in the goddamn morning? And now, of course, I'm totally awake, and it would be useless to try to go to sleep for an hour (plus I'd probably crease my hair all funky). Damn. So I folded clean laundry & watched reruns of That 70's Show on TiVo. *sigh*

Updates on CFUNITED, dog, etc.

OK, looking back over the blog I see that I left a few things hanging...

First of all, I did indeed get laid at CFUNITED. Broke my crazy dry spell with TWO men, actually. The first one was just incredibly fucking hot, but not exactly superman in the sack. Disappointing, but that seems par for the course with the hot guys.

Second guy was geeky and kinda scrawny, but hung like a horse. Seriously, the most beautiful cock I've ever seen in my life. Unfortunately, he's married. Yes, yes, I know, I'm a hideous fucking bitch for messing around with a married man. I have two things to say in my defense: #1 - we did not do "it" (everything but...) and #2 - CONFERENCE, people! Everyone knows that a conference is like a complete break from reality. Married men always have affairs at conferences. It's like a tradition. But seriously, I could not help myself. His cock was that amazing. I was hypnotized by it, I think.

Alrighty, now about Ginger...well, she stayed with us for a week, before I realized that I was completely fucking insane to think that I wanted a dog. I don't want a dog. I don't like animals. She was very sweet, but she needed a lot more exercise than we could give her. I couldn't walk her, because she pratically dislocated my shoulder whenever I tried. She couldn't just run around outside in the yard all day because it was 95+ degrees every day. So she would sleep in the hall while I worked in the office. And at night, she'd be banging around in her crate, because she got loads of sleep during the day. It was just kind of ridiculous. So, the doggy went back to the rescue group. I told rugrat that I'd get him a turtle instead. ;-)

Day 6

Today is day 6 of the great non-smoking campaign of 2005. Now, don't get me wrong. I love smoking. True, it smells nasty, will supposedly make me look old before my time, is expensive, and in general makes me a second-class citizen, since I must remove myself from all polite society in order to get my fix. BUT...I love it. I love lighting up and inhaling that first smoke of the day. I love having my last cigarette before going to bed. And I especially love the post-meal and post-sex cigarettes. Those are truly the best. But I just can't smoke anymore. Last week my blood pressure was so high I was afraid I was going to have a stroke or a heart attack and nobody would know until I just didn't show up to pick up Rugrat from daycare. So I quit, because I'm not quite ready to die yet.

And already, the smoking dreams have started. You know, the ones where you have that one cigarette and it's glorious and then all of the sudden, the crushing weight of guilt when you realize that you've fallen off the wagon YET AGAIN. I guess it's ok, as long as you feel guilty in your dreams. When you stop feeling guilty and just enjoy the smoke in your dreams, then you're actually in danger of falling off the wagon in "real life."

I had actual physical withdrawals this time. That pretty much sucked. The first couple of days I had a horrendous sore throat, and felt like I was getting the flu. Achy body, nausea & gas & all kinds of nasty gastro-intestinal issues, utter exhaustion coupled with complete insomnia, even after taking glorious NyQuil - I slept *maybe* two hours on Sunday night (after my first full day without nicotine). I even had a low-grade fever. It was unpleasant.

And BOY, am I a bitch. I finally left the house yesterday to do a session at The Full Plate in WC. I was allllll about the road rage. I just wanted to kill everyone else on the road. Now that's gotta be real good for my blood pressure. ;-)

M wanted me to go out last night. I just couldn't face leaving the house again. Instead, I curled up on the couch with a bottle of Merlot and some trashy TV. God, I am such a flake. I haven't seen him in about two weeks. That's OK. I'm just...not that into him.

It's so hot

It's been hot for weeks now. Not just normal summertime hot but blistering, get-a-sunburn-five-minutes-after-you-step-outside hot. I'm over it. The whole stupid weather thing that's been going on for a year...it's just been one extreme after another.

On the other hand...I've had a couple of dates with a new guy (M). Not so sure yet how I feel about him. He seems nice but was *VERY* clingy after our before our first & second dates. Now I haven't heard a peep since last Friday. It's just...strange. Yes, I kind of blew him off on our second date (not horribly, but I was a bit buzzed & with my friends and kind of just chatting with everyone, not paying attention exclusively to him). So...whatever. I'm not really stressed over it either way. I mean, I could see him a few more times but I'm not sure if I'm really into it, so I don't much care if I don't hear from him anymore.

Sometimes I wonder if I have just gotten too used to my independence. I haven't fallen in love (or even, really, in lust) for a long, long time. Years, actually. Unless you count the conference guy. That was definitely just lust, and definitely a conference-only kind of thing. Not only does he live 3000 miles away, but he's...um...married. I never thought I would be the kind of person who would knowingly mess around with a married man, but dayum, the man was hung like Secretariat, and he was very persistent. I did put up a bit of a fight, but once I saw his stellar package, I couldn't turn it away. Just...oh my god.

Anyway, I don't know what I'm doing here. I feel like I need to break out of whatever weird cycle I'm in and get back in the game - really in the game. I haven't felt that fluttery feeling in years, and I hate thinking that I might never feel it again.

Exciting weekend!

Rugrat & I went to the HP Midnight Magic party at the local Barnes & Noble. I made Rugrat take a nap after school, and then we went down there around 9 PM, after dinner & stuff. It was *packed*! I couldn't believe how great Rugrat was though...instead of being tired & whiny, he was just excited & kind of bouncing off the walls. Not too bad, though. Anyhoo, got my copy of HP&HBP, and got home around 12:30 AM. Started reading it right after putting Rugrat to bed, and managed a chapter & a half before I passed out.

Saturday morning, our lovely Ginger came over! She's here now, and Rugrat just adores her. He loves it when she gives him "kisses". But she definitely needs some work - she doesn't seem to know any commands (or else she doesn't much care because I am giving them). She hates going in her crate - I literally have to pull/shove her in there (and no, throwing treats in doesn't work, I tried that). She peed on the carpet in my bedroom about 15 minutes after the rescue worker left, but thankfully she hasn't had any accidents since then.

Saturday I spent a good amount of time reading, and stayed up late that night. Sunday morning I finished the book, and it was EXCELLENT. My favorite so far. Much more mature than any of the others in the series (which makes sense, since Harry is growing up), and heartbreaking at the end. Of course, I see why it had to happen (you know what scene I'm talking about if you've read it), but I was still crying my eyes out. Two more years (or so) until the final book!! Let's hope JKR can give us the satisfying finish...because Stephen King sure didn't with the Dark Tower series; I'm still kinda burned about that one.

Our growing family

Our family is about to grow! We're adopting a wonderful Staffordshire Terrier this weekend. Her name is Ginger, and she's just the sweetest thing ever. She doesn't bark, she doesn't make any noise at all...and she would just kiss you to death, if you gave her the chance. She loves to lay on her back and have you rub her belly. :-)

The only thing that worries me is that she is SO strong. I'm going to take her to an obedience class, more for MY benefit than hers. She's a great dog, but since I've never had one before, I need to learn how to handle her when walking & so on - right now she pretty much just drags me along. LOL

Anyway, Rugrat met her tonight and it was hilarious. The rescue woman brought Ginger to the park, and Rugrat was giggling madly pretty much the whole time. He wanted Ginger to kiss him, so he'd get close to her, but as soon as she'd move towards him to kiss him, Rugrat would run away. He's a bit skittish around dogs (so was I, for MANY years) but towards the end of the visit he got more comfortable with Ginger and let her kiss him a few times.

Anyway, wish us luck! I'm really excited and so happy to have her join our family. :-)

First day of school

Waaaaah! Mah bay-beee!

Rugrat started first grade this morning. Yes, in July (year round school here, yanno). It's such a huge milestone. He's just not a baby anymore - he's a kid.

I am a bit peeved at the school though. I didn't receive any sort of informational packet at all - like, school start/end times (wouldn't that be sort of good to know?). I called the daycare program yesterday and spoke to them about an unrelated matter & found out that school starts at 8 AM, but still! You'd think that new families should get some sort of flyer or something in the mail. Apparently school lets out early on Wednesdays - how would I have known that? I still don't know what time school lets out on normal days. And the morning drop-off process? The kids all line up behind their classroom numbers (which are in no particular order that I can tell) and the teachers come & get them. And I'd know this...how? I mean, I figured it out when we got there and all the kids were lining up, but...come on. Just a one-page letter to new families would have removed an awful lot of anxiety and confusion.

CFUNITED

Christ almighty. I need a week to recover from that!

The conference was great - tons of excellent sessions during the day, and plenty of hard drinking at night. I think I averaged 4 hours of sleep each night.

I met a bunch of great people though, some really old-skool CF'ers. Everyone was so nice and approachable. Of course, the open bar on Wednesday and Thursday might have helped in that regard. ;-)

Another thing I noticed was that there were a LOT more women at this conference. The last CF conference I went to was five years ago, and there were maybe half a dozen women at that one. Probably 10-15% of this conference was women, which I was rather impressed with. I don't know if it means that there are more female CF programmers than there used to be, or if they are just coming out of the woodwork now. Heh.

Anyway, I'll yap more about this later. I need to digest all the information, and catch up on sleep!

That was a date?

OK, so the guy, D, finally called (a couple hours after my "Men" post, actually). He still couldn't make a freakin' decision and basically had me hanging on until Friday night, when he finally managed to get his shit together and pick a place/time.

We met at Havana, along with his cousin, cousin's gf, and gf's friend. AND he was 20 minutes late. This is a first date?? Um, OK.

I had already eaten, so I just hung out & chatted with everyone while they ate. Cousin's gf's friend (V) was very nice & we had quite a bit in common so we chatted for a while. D basically ignored me. Well, didn't *ignore* me, so much as didn't really treat me any different than the other folks we were with. Again, I ask you: is this a date??

After dinner we went over to Groove (I keep wanting to call it Echo) and, thanks to cousin's gf, got in for free since she knows the lady who collects the cover charge. Inside, it was pretty crowded, and we all went to the bar for a drink. I was definitely done drinking, after two lemon drops, but everyone else got beers. V & I danced for a bit, but D? Again, not interested. Wouldn't dance, didn't seem to want to talk to me. He ended up spending a good half hour to an hour talking to some blonde. What an ass. I'm not a particularly jealous person, but seriously! On a first date??? It was just rude.

We stayed until they closed Groove, and then outside we got ready to leave. D? Gave me a halfhearted hug. No offers to walk me to my car. No attempt at a goodnight kiss. Not even a promise to call (even if he didn't mean it). What an ass.

V & I went to Hubcaps, because she was definitely too drunk to drive. I was exhausted but I made sure she got some food in her belly and sobered up a bit before I would let her drive. While we were there, we got picked up on by a couple of guys (one of whom was totally hammered, and basically snuck out after saying he was going to the bathroom - I don't know if he was sick or what). The other guy, S, was this hot black guy from New Orleans, and he got my number. We were supposed to go to the movies on Saturday night but I basically flaked on him. I went out to Livermore to see Dad & he called while we were at BevMo. I didn't have his number with me (and it didn't show up on caller ID on my cell) so I couldn't call him back then. And later that night I went out with K & M. We were going to a party in Lafayette, but it was dead so we didn't even go in. Instead we went to Ruth's Chris, had a drink, and then went next door to Tiki Tom's. TT's was loads of fun - one of K's clients (T) was there with a group of people who included J, the old bartender from Twist. We had more drinks & ended up going back to T's friend's house with the group for a little while. M apparently was very unhappy because she & T had hated each other in high school. High school! For God's sake, it was like a dozen years ago! Get over it. People change. Anyway, I had a blast and gave out my number to a few people. We'll see what happens with that.

But tomorrow, I'm off to DC for a conference. I swear, if I don't get laid out there, K will never talk to me again. ;-) It's been almost a year now, and she's sick of hearing me bitch about it, LOL.

Men

Why leave it to the last minute? Seriously, like I have nothing better to do with my time than to sit around and wait for you to figure out your schedule so you can "squeeze me in" for a date. I know your cousin is coming to visit and you're unsure of his plans...but make a decision. I don't want to leave my weekend wide open for you because for all I know, you're going to totally flake on me.

Here's the thing: we talked last weekend, right? And you didn't know when you'd be free. And now it's Thursday. That means that the weekend starts tomorrow evening. And do you still not know? Or what? Dude, call and fucking set a place & time already. If you don't do it tonight, I'm going to be busy (even if I'm not). I don't care how smokin' hot you are. I deserve better than last minute booty-call treatment.

HATE!

I am extremely frustrated. I've wasted nearly a whole day on trying to get FCKeditor to work with ColdFusionMX on Linux RedHat. It's just...not working. I can't get it to work with PHP either. It's really driving me insane.

For one thing, it appears to try to access index.cfm -- which is nowhere in the files. And it's not even referred to in the files, so I just don't get where that crap is coming from.

I tried going back to an earlier version of fckeditor - 1.6 (current is 2.0). But that doesn't appear to work with anything except IE & windows, so that's a complete waste of time.

I'm just very, very frustrated right now. The Wiki for the product has absolutely nothing on CF installation. You'd think it would be simple enough to install - I added the custom tag (we're running CF5 on some servers, so I wanted it to be backwards-compatible). I referenced the module. But nothing happens. Nada. No error, just...blank. I thought maybe it was a problem with iframes, but I can't find anything on that either.

Grrr....

Father's Day, etc.

Had a nice Father's Day. On Saturday, I cleaned & got some stuff done around the house that I'd been putting off for a while (installing towel ring in bathroom, texturing & painting the place in the stairwell that was patched after the kids accidentally ripped out the handrail). On Sunday, Dad, stepmom & stepsis came over around 1 pm. We ate the yummy guacamole I'd made...in about 10 minutes flat. Then Dad & Rugrat played in the backyard for a bit until Rugrat's dad came over at 3 PM-ish. More playing in backyard, since Babydaddy brought a Bionicle to put together. I went to the store to pick up ice cream & came home to fix the big dinner: pork tenderloin w/brown sugar-chipotle sauce, corn on the cob w/sage butter, green beans w/almonds, and cheese biscuits. For dessert: apple crisp & vanilla ice cream. Yum.

Then Babydaddy & I sat on the couch and polished off another bottle of wine while watching Love Actually, with Rugrat asleep upstairs. All in all: a satisfying day, a productive weekend, and a damn good meal, if I do say so myself. ;-)

It came, it came!

So yesterday, I saw that Amazon finally shipped out my crap. It was coming from Nevada, so I thought "Coo. It'll be here Monday, probably."

It came this morning! Hot damn, that was FAST. Now why couldn't they do this a week ago?

Oh yeah, free shipping. They like to make my blood boil and hold off on shipping til the Very. Last. Second. Then, what? Do they ship it overnight? Sheesh.

I hate Amazon's free shipping

I don't know why I always use it. Oh wait, yes I do, because it's FREE!

But it pisses me off. The original estimate said my items would be shipped on the 13th. Not the expected delivery date, you understand, but the date that it leaves Amazon's warehouse.

Well, it's the 15th, and the damn thing still says "Shipping Soon". I placed my order a full week ago. It doesn't take a full freakin' week to throw four items in a box and send it on its way. Really. I mean, I understand that my shipment is low priority (since I'm not paying shipping costs) but still! I've been a loyal Amazon shopper since 2000. Send the fucking stuff already! I want my new digital camera before it becomes obsolete. And I am really, desperately in need of that USB printer cord. My new laptop doesn't work with the serial printer cable. Throw me a bone here, Amazon folks. Just throw the crap in a box and send it out.

Got my hair done last night

$200 for highlights & a cut. *sigh* Sometimes I wonder why I bother. Do I REALLY need to spend that much money?

I think my hair looks too dark. She put a toner on all my non-highlighted hair, and it is a bit darker than it was before. It's pretty, but not really "summery", yanno?

This weekend...

I went out with my friends Saturday night. First we had dinner & drinks at one restaurant, where we sat next to two very good-looking men who were with a cute blond girl. We couldn't figure out which one of the guys was with the girl (therefore leaving the odd man out for one of us!). Then we went to another restaurant and had dessert & drinks (drinks on the house, as it was late & empty, and we're kind of regulars there). Then we went dancing...and who should we run into but the two hot guys & cute blond girl (along with several more of their friends)! Turns out, the two hot guys are just FRIENDS with the cute blond girl. So we flirted, danced, etc...and on the way out I gave my card to one of the guys and told him he could email me.

So yesterday, Monday (note: less than standard "three day rule"), the hot guy called me. Only problem: the number on the card is the office phone number, and I work from home. Which is why I told him to email me. Ah well, blame it on the drinks. So he called, and I get this very *surprised* IM and email from E at work: "[Hot Guy] called for you! His number is XXX-XXX-XXXX; he says he talked to you Saturday night." So then I had this barrage of IM's from work folks wanting to know about who called me. Oy.

Anyway, I called him back and we chatted for a few minutes. Just the right amount of time - no uncomfortable silences, no stupid foot-in-mouth moments. I learned that he's a high school history teacher, and is trying to find ways to keep busy during his summer vacation. He used to work at the high school near my home, but moved out to WC and is working in the next town over. I told him about the rugrat, and he didn't seem put off. He invited me out for dinner and we discussed mutually convenient times to do that...Anyway, long story short, we are going out next week[end] and will be chatting on the phone in the interim, to make firm plans and...well...chat. ;-) So far I'm not getting my hopes too high but he seems like a very nice guy and he is just smokin' hot.

Keeping my fingers crossed....

Septimus Heap: Magyk Book One

About halfway into this fun kid's-lit book. It's similar to the HP series, but more focused on adventure and less on mystery, I think. Anyway, cute book if your kids have "wizard fever" - it's something to keep them entertained while (impatiently) waiting for July 16!

iRobot is the BOMB!

I love my Roomba. Really, truly, I do. It is fantastic and one of the best purchases I've ever made (right up there with TiVo). But of course I wished for something that would also mop my floors - maybe a Roomba with a swiffer attachment or something. Now iRobot (who makes Roomba) is making Scooba, a vacuum/mop system that sucks up dirt, squirts cleaning solution on the floor, scrubs it with a vacuum-type brush, and then sucks up the dirty cleaning fluid & squeegees the floor dry. It will be on sale in time for the 2005 holiday season, and I can't wait!!! With about 1000 sf of hard flooring in my home, this is going to be the coolest thing ever!

Name of the Rose

Meh. The story might be great, but so far it's pretty hard going. Umberto just goes off on these tangents where he babbles incessantly about stuff that seems to have nothing at all to do with the story. Seriously, do I need to read three pages of description of the entrance to the freakin' church? No. Just get to the mystery. He seems to do OK with dialogue, there's just not much of it. He'd be better off with less rambling descriptive crap and more dialogue that actually propels the story along.

In other words, the author seriously needs a decent editor.

Yay, Series of Unfortunate Events!!

Book 12 is coming out on October 18, 2005! Still no idea what the title will be, but Rugrat will be glad to know that the audio book should be available at the library before we make our trip to Disneyland at Halloween this year!

Finished two books today

First: The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey. Interesting fictional story but with quite a bit of historical fact thrown in. Story centers around a policeman, who's stuck in the hospital after a nasty fall. While trying to keep from dying of boredom, he stumbles upon the mystery of Richard III, who supposedly killed his two young nephews in order to gain/keep the crown.
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Our story's protagonist hooks up with a researcher at the British Museum, and together they uncover all kinds of interesting factoids about Richard which make it clear to them that he did not, in fact, kill his nephews, and while he's been reviled for about four hundred years as a notorious murderer and callous blackguard, he was actually a very enlightened ruler and loving family man.


Second: Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi. An unusual non-fiction book written entirely in comic strip format, about the author's childhood growing up in Iran, and all the political and social turmoil she was living through. Very touching in places. Also, a super-quick read.

Next up: The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco.

This is why I don't commute

So I was driving back up to the bay area from San Diego a couple weeks ago...and what was normally a 9 hour drive took TWELVE HOURS. Twelve! Three hours fighting through L.A. traffic, and then two hours dead-stopped on the Grapevine. With med-evac helicopters flying overhead, and cops & ambulances driving by on the shoulder. Good lord.

Twelve hours. I wanted to die by the end of that drive.